Persian Lentil Soup Recipe
First of all, I should mention than there are many kinds of soups in Persian cuisines such as Soupe Jou, Soupe Karafs, Soupe Khame, and Persian Lentil Soup (Adasi) that one is more delicious than others. In this article, I am going to talk about Adasi (عدسی). Adasi is a kind of vegetable soup that got its name from its main ingredients, lentil. Lentil is one member of the legumes family. It has very high-value nutrition. Adas (عدس) is the Persian name of the lentil, and it is well-know because of its lens-like shape. People have used lentil as edible seeds since 8000 years ago when they found it in ancient cities of Central Asia and the Middle East.
Adasi is one of the most natural recipes which come together quickly that anybody can prepare it under 40 minutes when they are late for making lunch or dinner or are not in a mood of cooking. We can serve Persian Lentil Soup( Adasi) as an appetizer in the parties and even as a tonic breakfast for a long, busy day or a light-nourished lunch or dinner. It is also well-known as a hearty winter meal. This delicious soup can match with various flavorings very easily. You can play with this recipe with so many amazing textures and flavors.
Different types of Persian Lentil Soup:
Persian Lentil Soup (Adasi) is a vegetarian meal basically with various recipes that comes from all over Asia and East. You can add or remove some ingredients and create diversity in its taste, such as a different vegetable like tomato, carrot, garlic, onion, and even mushroom. You can also add some soup noodles or some meat. By combining these ingredients to the recipe, you make it more valuable and make various tastes.
Important nutrition facts:
Persian Lentil Soup(Adasi) has high value and quality nutrition. It also contains high calories with 405kcal per 100gr. It is also rich in minerals, vitamins, carbohydrates, protein, and fiber. Its properties include 55gr of carbohydrate per 100gr, 17gr protein per 100gr, 19gr fiber per 100 gr, vitamin A 1308IU per 100gr, vitamin C 36mg per 100gr, calcium 84mg per 100gr, Iron 6mg per 100, and sodium 2531mg per 100gr.
Since lentil (Adas) is one of the gluten-free legumes, it is an excellent choice for celiac disease patients. This disease causes their body could not digest the appliance of gluten in the foods. The antioxidant and fiber, vitamins, and minerals properties of lentil used in Adasi provide mire health to our body and reduce aging and risk of most diseases.
The diseases that Adasi has a prevention role include Diabetes, Gastrointestinal disorders, and constipation, cancers, especially breast cancer and prostate cancer, heart diseases, Anemia, and Hypertension. It also helps the body balance blood sugar and blood cholesterol and improves the body`s ability to increase metabolism and lose weight. Therefore, I recommend that you consume Adasi several times a week.
Vegetarian tips:
Persian Lentil Soup(Adasi) is an entirely vegetarian dish. All ingredients used in cooking have a vegetable base. It is a perfect meal for a vegetarian diet. Its benefits are unimaginable since it is a complete food in terms of nutrition, such as carbohydrates, proteins, fibers, minerals, and vitamins. You may sometimes see animal meat in its recipe. But it is a choice that the omnivorous prefer to add some to make it more nourishing and fortifying.
Serving style of Persian Lentil Soup:
As mentioned earlier, we can serve Persian Lentil Soup(Adasi) as an appetizer and starter and as a tonic breakfast for a long, busy day or a light-nourished lunch or dinner. If you intend to have it as a main meal, you should also serve a piece of bread (any kind of flatbread) along with Adasi. A glass of drink like dough (Persian yogurt drink) will be so pleasant as well. Topping it with sautéed onion and barberries (Zereshk) will make it look more delicious.
What are the ingredients?
Since Persian Lentil Soup(Adasi) is a vegetarian meal, its ingredients include various vegetables of green lentil, onion, carrot, potato, tomato or tomato paste, and lemon juice. It also contains different spices and flavorings (Advieh) such as salt, turmeric, pepper, cinnamon, and angelica powder (Golpar). Of course, it depends on your taste to choose which one of these spices.
As mentioned earlier, you can add some soup noodle and mushroom that it depends on your preference. If you are omnivorous, you can also add some meat to your recipe.
How to cook Persian Lentil Soup?
We said that it is a quick ready meal. At first, you need to soak your lentil. Then you should sauté your onion and garlic. After that, you should add the salt and flavor that you prefer and tomato paste to the sautéed onion and garlic. Then you should fry it for some more minutes. Now you can add presoaked lentil to the pot. In this part, you should cover the pan and let lentil boils and cooks for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, you have to add other ingredients include carrot and potato (and mushroom if you want), and cover the pot again and let them cook thoroughly. If you want the meal to thicken a bit more, add some all-purpose flour and let it boil more minutes. Of course, you can also add some soup noodles instead of all-purpose flour. Your meal is ready to serve. Just decorate and serve it.
Recipe
This recipe is adequate for four people. The preparation time is 10 minutes, and the cooking time is 50 to 60 minutes. It depends on the type of lentil. You can have this delicious meal in 60 minutes.
Persian Lentil Soup
Ingredients
- 1 large onion
- 1 glove of garlic
- 1 medium-size potato
- 1 medium-size carrot
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon angelica powder (Golpar)
- 2 tablespoon potato paste
- 2 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 4 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 6 glasses water
- Some barberries for topping
Instructions
- Soak the lentil for 1 hour.
- Peel the onion, garlic, potato, carrot.
- Slice the onion, chop the garlic, and dice the potato and carrot.
- Grab a suitable size of the pan and put it on a medium flame and pour the vegetable oil and heat it.
- Sautéthe onion and garlic in it.
- After sautéing onion and garlic, add presoaked lentil plus six glasses of water.
- Cover the pan and let it simmer for 20 minutes.
- After 20 minutes of lentil half-cooked, uncovered the pan, add diced carrot and potato, and let them cook for another 20 minutes.
- After that, add lemon juice and all-purpose flour to the meal and let it boil for 10minutes until it thickens.
- Pour it into a suitable bowl and decorate it with fried onion and barberries.
- It is ready to serve.
Notes
Uniqop`s advice
- You can serve any kind of flatbread along with Persian Lentil Soup(Adasi). But fresh Noon-e-Sangak will be more pleasant.
- If you serve it, it will be more pleasant.
- You can use other kinds of lentil (red or black) instead of green lentil in the cooking of Adasi.